Railway bribery case: Delhi HC grants bail to Singla, 3 others

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to Vijay Singla, nephew of former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, and three others in the Rs 10 crore railway bribery case. Besides Singla, Justice Hima Kohli allowed bail pleas of now suspended Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar, businessman Narayan Rao Manjunath and alleged middleman Sandeep Goyal and asked each of them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of like amount. “The applicants are enlarged on bail,” Justice Kohli said directing them to furnish the personal bond and sureties to the satisfaction of the Special Judge hearing the case.  While granting bail to the accused, Justice Kohli imposed certain conditions on them. The accused were directed to surrender their passports before CBI, they have to appear in trial court on every date of hearing and they were asked not to influence the witnesses. After the court pronounced the order, the counsel for accused told the court that the presiding judge is not holding the court today and next two days and the high court should direct any other judge to accept the personal bonds and the sureties to be furnished by them. Justice Kohli allowed their submissions saying, “The district Judge or concerned Additional Sessions Judge can accept the personal bond and the sureties of the accused persons.” The four accused persons had moved the high court seeking bail after the trial court on July 12 had rejected their plea. The CBI had opposed their bail pleas, saying Singla is the “main person” whose influence was to be used for the appointment of Kumar and they can influence the witness while the trial court is yet to frame charges. The probe agency had said Singla was caught along with other accused who were the ‘main conspirators’ and the offence committed by them was of a “grave nature”. All the four accused persons have been charge sheeted by CBI for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI